dnf is a package manager for rpm-based linux distros; while rpm can only manage local repos, dnf can interact with both local and remote repos;

the full dnf command reference is long and takes some time to absorb; so we extract the most essential commands and give some brief introductions and examples, in a logical order;

make metadata

many dnf commands depend on having access to up-to-date repo metadata; to save the cost of accessing remote repo each time we run a command, this metadata is cached; the caching happens automatically when we run related commands; but in case we want to do it manually, use:

dnf makecache

clean metadata, packages and more

if the local cache of metadata, packages and other files are no longer needed, we can clean them using:

dnf clean [all|metadata|packages|...]

list repos

we can list enabled, disabled, or all repos using:

dnf repolist [--all|--enabled|--disabled]

install packages

to install one or more packages, use:

dnf install

upgrade packages

to upgrade one or more packages, use:

dnf upgrade

remove packages

to remove one or more packages, use:

dnf remove

list packages

to list packages, use:

dnf list [--all|--installed|--available|--upgrades|--extras|...]

show package infos

to show package infos, use:

dnf info [--all|--installed|--available|--upgrades|--extras|...]

query repos

now comes the repoquery command:

dnf [options] repoquery [<select-options>] [<query-options>] [...]

this is a very powerful command to query packages in repos; fortunately, it is an equivalent of rpm -q for remote repos, so we do not have to cover it here again; instead, we just give a few examples:

dnf repoquery gcc
dnf repoquery -i gcc
dnf repoquery -l gcc
dnf repoquery -f /usr/bin/bash
dnf --repo fedora repoquery -f /usr/bin/bash

in fact, dnf list works like dnf repoquery, and dnf info works like dnf repoquery -i, in many aspects; but dnf list and dnf info give output that is more human-readable;

transaction history

dnf keeps record of transactions we made in the past, and allows us to undo and redo these transactions, using the history command;

to list one, more or all historical transactions:

dnf history [list] [--reverse] [arg]

to show info of a transaction:

dnf history info <arg>

to undo a transaction:

dnf history undo <arg>

to redo a transaction:

dnf history redo <arg>

to rollback all transactions after the given one:

dnf history rollback <arg>

command alias

dnf allows user to define command aliases, using the alias command;

to list aliases:

dnf alias [options] [list] [<name>...]

to create an alias:

dnf alias [options] add <name=value>

to delete an alias:

dnf alias [options] delete <name>

other useful commands

depending on use case, these commands can be useful:

autoremove
check
check-update
distro-sync
downgrade
group
mark
module
provides
search
updateinfo

global options

the dnf command takes global options; here are a few useful ones:

  • --refresh

    set metadata as expired before running the command; this option is strongly recommended for important jobs;

  • --allowerasing

    allow erasing of installed packages to resolve dependencies; this option is necessary in certain cases, but use it with caution;

  • --repo=<repoid>, --repoid=<repoid>

    enable just specific repositories by an id or a glob; can be used multiple times with accumulative effect;

  • -q, --quiet

    show just relevant content and suppress notifying messages;

plugins

dnf can be augmented with plugins; some useful ones:

  • builddep

    install build dependencies for package or spec file;

  • config-manager

    manage dnf configuration options and repositories;

  • copr

    interact with copr repositories;

  • download

    download package to current directory;

  • repograph

    output a full package dependency graph in dot format;

  • system-upgrade

    prepare system for upgrade to a new release;

tips and tricks

  • dnf repoquery --requires --resolve <arg>

    this command lists resolved dependencies of the given package; that is, it tells which packages must be installed before the given one;

  • dnf repoquery --whatprovides <arg>

    this command is useful when we want to know which package provides the given capability; a capability is a text string, which can be a file path;

    this command works like dnf provides;

  • dnf repoquery --upgrades

    this command works like dnf check-update;

  • dnf upgrade --refresh

    refresh metadata then upgrade all packages; do this before important jobs such as system upgrade;

  • dnf repoquery --unsatisfied

    show broken dependencies among installed packages;

  • dnf repoquery --duplicates

    show duplicate packages (packages with multiple versions installed);

  • dnf repoquery --extras

    list packages installed on the system that are not available in any known repository;